''Anna Christie'' is a 1930 German-language film adapted from the 1921

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

play of the same title and filmed following the release of the English-language original version of the same adaptation earlier the same year. Both versions feature leading actress

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...

. In the early years of sound films,

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

studios produced foreign-language versions of some of their films using the same sets and sometimes the same costumes, with native speakers of the language usually replacing some or all of the original cast. The German-language version of ''Anna Christie'' is one of the few that survives. The film was produced by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

at their

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

studio in July and August 1930 (the English-language original had been filmed there in October and November 1929). It premiered in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, Germany on December 2, 1930. Garbo is the only cast member appearing in both versions and looks noticeably different in the two. The German dialog was written by Walter Hasenclever and Frank Reicher, for the most part very closely following Frances Marion's original adaptation. The film was directed by

Jacques Feyder Jacques Feyder (; 21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the US, Britain and Germany. He was a director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930 ...

using the same cinematographer, Garbo favorite

William H. Daniels William H. Daniels American Society of Cinematographers, ASC (December 1, 1901 – June 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer who was Greta Garbo's personal lensman. Early in his career he worked regularly with director Erich von Stroheim. ...

, but a different crew.

Plot

Chris Christofferson (Hans Junkermann), the alcoholic skipper of a coal barge in New York, receives a letter from his estranged twenty-year-old daughter Anna "Christie" Christofferson (

). She tells him that she'll be leaving Minnesota to stay with him. Chris had left Anna 15 years ago to be raised by relatives who live on a farm in the countryside of St. Paul and has not seen her since. Anna Christie arrives, an emotionally wounded woman with a dishonorable, hidden past, having worked as a prostitute for two years, after fleeing the farm where she had been greatly overworked and then raped. She moves to the barge to live with her father, who, one night, rescues Matt (Theo Shall) from the sea. Anna and Matt fall in love and she has the best days of her life. However, when Matt proposes marriage, she is reluctant, haunted by her past. Matt insists and compels Anna to tell him the truth.

Cast (in credits order)

as Anna Christie *

Theo Shall Theo Shall (1896–1955) was a German stage and film actor.Goble p. 330 He was born in Metz when it was part of the German Empire but left following its occupation by France following the First World War. Selected filmography * ''Das Spielzeug v ...

as Matt Burke *

Hans Junkermann Hennes "Hans" Junkermann (6 May 1934 – 11 April 2022) was a German professional racing cyclist who won 35 road races in 18 seasons from 1956 to 1973. He won the German National Road Race in 1959, 1960, and 1961. Biography Junkermann was bor ...

as Chris Christofferson *

Salka Viertel Salka Viertel (15 June 1889 – 20 October 1978) was an Austrian Jewish actress and Hollywood screenwriter. While under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1933 to 1937, Viertel co-wrote the scripts for many movies, particularly those starr ...

as Marthy Owens *

Herman Bing Herman Bing (March 30, 1889 – January 9, 1947) was a German-American character actor. He acted in more than 120 films and many of his parts were uncredited. Biography Bing was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was son of the opera ...

as Larry (uncredited)

Home media

Though the English-language version of ''Anna Christie'' has been released numerous times worldwide on DVD, the German version is only available on a subtitled US DVD. The latter was sourced from an inferior print; a much better print without subtitles exists.A brief clip from a superior print with no subtitles can be seen at 0:52:37 in the TCM ''Garbo'' documentary included in the 2005 Garbo centennial DVD box set.

Notes

References

* *

External links

* * {{Anna Christie 1930 films 1930 drama films American drama films American black-and-white films Films about prostitution in the United States American films based on plays Films based on works by Eugene O'Neill Films directed by Jacques Feyder 1930s German-language films American multilingual films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Seafaring films Films with screenplays by Frances Marion 1930 multilingual films 1930s American films